


A Different World

by helsinkibaby



Series: Another Lifetime [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Gen, canon divergences, different timelines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-02-27
Packaged: 2018-09-27 08:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9985550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: The last survivor of STAR Labs after Zoom takes over her Earth, Caitlin Snow lands on an Earth where some things are the same, and others very, very different.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For one million words February Bingo, free space.

Caitlin flew through the air and out of the portal, landing heavily on a cold, tiled floor. The impact knocked the breath from her lungs and she rolled onto her back, watching as the swirling blue funnels of air raged in front of her. 

Watching and waiting. 

Then there was a terrible whooshing sound, as if all the air was being sucked out of the room, and the portal vanished from sight. 

All Caitlin could do was stare at it dumbly, hoping against hope that it would reappear, that the worst would not, in fact, have happened. Her heart pounded in her chest and she used it to count the seconds and she was so bust concentrating on that that she didn't even notice that alarm bells were ringing until a hand closed over her shoulder. 

She turned with a shriek, stared into a pair of eyes that were an impossibility. "Caitlin, what are you doing here?" Cisco's voice betrayed his confusion. "Where's Ronnie? The others?"

Caitlin shook her head to try to clear it, regretted it immediately when the room spun around her and Cisco's grip became the only thing keeping her upright. "Whoa," he said, his fingers tightening on her shoulder. "Come on, let's get Harry to check you out..." 

He waved at someone over Caitlin's shoulder and when another man appeared behind Cisco, it was like a bucket of cold water was thrown over Caitlin. She stared into the eyes of Harrison Wells and a shriek of sheer terror rose in her throat, one she couldn't have kept back if she wanted to. She tried to move, to scoot away but Cisco's grip was too strong and Wells's face twisted in a frown, then cleared. "Call me crazy, Ramon," he said and there was something different about that voice, a tone she'd never heard before. "But I don't think this is your Caitlin." 

Cisco's head snapped around to look at him, then back to Caitlin. His eyes moved over her body and he frowned. "Is he right? You're not our universe's Caitlin?" 

Slowly, Caitlin shook her head. "No," she whispered. 

"How did you get here?" Cisco asked the next logical question and Caitlin felt her eyes fill with tears. 

"You opened the portal," she said. "You sent me through first, you were supposed to come after me." There was only one reason why he wouldn't have and that knowledge spilled down her cheeks. 

"Ok." Cisco's sigh was heavy, and he stood, helping her up. "Let's get the band together," he said simply. "We need to compare notes." 

It turned out the band was pretty much the same in any universe. Barry and Iris were duly summoned and appeared, and it only Caitlin a minute to ascertain that they were a couple in this reality too. Cisco was much the same, although this version of Harrison Wells was hugely different, which made sense considering he was actually Harrison Wells, not the EoWells she had known. There were two additions though - Jesse Quick, Harry's daughter, and Wally West, Iris's brother. Who looked enough like his father that it made Caitlin's head spin and she hoped that people would think it was just disorientation from the portal. 

Or maybe it was just from finding out about her life on this Earth, because their Doctor Caitlin Snow, though she had once been employed by STAR Labs, had stayed there after their particle accelerator exploded, just like she had, there was where the similarities ended. Because their Caitlin Snow had been engaged at the time of the explosion, to an engineer on the project called Ronnie Raymond. 

"Ronnie?" Caitlin frowned, rubbed the bridge of her nose, a vague memory coming to her of a handsome man, dark hair and a ready smile. 

"Yeah." Cisco was nodding. "We thought he died in the explosion... Turned out the dark matter had bonded him with another man, Martin Stein. You never heard of the Firestorm Matrix?" All she could do was shake her still spinning head and try to keep up. "Anyway, we found out that Ronnie was alive, figured out how to separate him and Doctor Stein most of the time... They went off to figure out how to live as a combined entity... and Caitlin went with them." 

"Until a couple of years ago." Barry took up the tale. "When they ended up joining a crew on a Time Ship to try to save the world." 

Caitlin knew her eyes were wide. "Time ship?" 

Cisco glared at Barry. "Long story." Turning back to Caitlin, he tilted his head. "You and Ronnie were never a thing? That's new."

Slowly, Caitlin shook her head, gratified to learn that it didn't feel like she was going to collapse at any moment. "No," she said, her hand going to her chest, where she could feel the pendant she always wore under her sweater. "No, we never were." 

"But I take it from your... reaction... to me..." The way Harry said the word so carefully made it immediately obvious what he meant. "...That there were other similarities. My doppelgänger for example..."

"Eobard Thawne." Everyone in the room, bar Jesse, Harry and Wally shuddered when Caitlin said his name. "Engineered the explosion... made you The Flash." She pointed at Barry. "You, me, Cisco... we were a team, even after we'd found out what he'd done, sent him back to his timeline..." She didn't miss the looks they gave one another, the way Iris's jaw clenched and she turned away for a moment. 

"So why are you here?" Wally stepped closer to his sister but his eyes were on Caitlin. "Why did Cisco send you here?" 

"Zoom." The word made her stomach churn but there were shocked looks of recognition from the others. "I take it you have him too?" 

"Had." Barry's jaw was tight. "We got rid of him." 

He didn't offer details and Caitlin didn't ask for them. Instead, she took a deep breath, clenched her fists and began to speak. "We didn't. He overran my Earth... And we tried to stop him, we tried so hard... But he was too fast. He killed..." She shuddered. "So many people..." The faces of her friends floated through her mind's eye and she closed her eyes, like that was going to help. "He destroyed STAR Labs... Cisco and I, we were the only two left, so Cisco decided he'd open a breach, let us both escape..." It had been the only way, she knew that, because Zoom never would have stopped looking for them. 

"Wait, Zoom can't open breaches?" Harry sounded surprised and Caitlin opened her eyes, met his gaze as she shook her head. 

"Cisco sent me through first, he said he'd be right behind me, but just as I went through..." She'd seen the blue lightning, hadn't wanted to admit what it meant. She sucked in a shaking breath now, dropped her head into her hands. 

There was a terrible silence. 

"Look, Caitlin, you must be exhausted." Somehow, Caitlin wasn't surprised that Iris was the one who spoke first, nor by the words she said. "Why don't you come home with us? You can have a long shower, a good meal, a good night's sleep, we can sort everything else out tomorrow." She smiled at Caitlin and for just a moment, Caitlin felt like everything in the world made sense again. 

"Thank you," she managed to say past the lump in her throat and Iris came over to stand beside her, dropping an arm around her shoulders. 

"Of course." 

Iris drove them home, Barry sitting beside her in the front seat, fingers beating a tattoo against his leg the whole way. It made Caitlin smile, because her Barry would have done exactly the same - driving was too slow a mode of transportation for The Flash. 

But when they parked the car, she wasn't smiling anymore. 

On her earth, Barry and Iris had their own apartment, halfway between STAR Labs and CCPN. Here, they evidently still lived at home and Caitlin's knees shook as she walked into the house. She hadn't been there in a long time, but it was just like she remembered it, though the pictures on the walls were different, the furniture slightly altered. But it was still close enough to make her head spin, her heart pound, her throat ache with tears. 

She was trying to keep it together, but then she heard Iris's voice. "Dad, you remember Caitlin Snow, right?"

And a voice she never thought she'd hear again said, "Hard not to remember the woman who saved Barry's life." 

Caitlin looked up and there he was, standing up from his armchair, suit jacket long gone, tie likewise missing, top button of his shirt open and his sleeves rolled up. His eyes moved over her body and she felt like she was going to faint as Barry crossed to stand beside Joe, laid a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah... About that..." He steered Joe into the kitchen and Caitlin watched them go as she tried to tame her hammering heart. 

"Come on." Iris gestured towards the stairs. "Wally's set up home in the basement... he thinks we don't know that he did it so Jesse can sneak in more easily." That was said with a conspiratorial wink. "Barry and I have this room, my dad is down the hall... You can sleep here." Caitlin knew it was Barry's childhood bedroom, but she knew better than to say it. "I'll get you some towels if you want to have a shower, and a t-shirt to sleep in... you want some food? My dad's a great cook." 

Caitlin knew that too, just like she knew that even though she was starving, she wouldn't be able to eat a thing. "I think I'll just try to sleep," she said and Iris nodded. 

"If you need anything..."

"Thanks," Caitlin called after her, waiting until the door was closed, until Iris's footsteps had faded down the hallway before she sank down on the bed and, for the first time in a long time, let herself cry.


End file.
